RM Books

On the 31st July 2018, RM Books ebooks service closed.

If you are an RM Books customer you have been given the opportunity to transfer your subscription and all unspent credit over to the Browns Books for Students – VLeBooks.

Browns Books for Students is an established and well-known bookseller to the education sector with over 750,000 titles for all ages in its eBook catalogue. The VLeBooks system is used across the UK and is a highly comparable service to RM Books. We’ve listed some frequently asked questions below to help you get started.

The team at VLeBooks will support your transition and are happy to call you, run online demos and/or visit you. Please contact VLeBooks on 01482 384 660 or enquiries@brownsbfs.co.uk to arrange.

FAQs

My new account

When will my new account be ready?

VLeBooks is now available as a full single sign-on application within RM Unify. You can find it within the RM Unify App Library. Similarly, we expect the VLeBooks app to be available in the Glow App Library in the coming weeks. You can add it to your LaunchPad to create your account.

b) You can manually upload and maintain your users within VLeBooks and not provide single sign-on. Help is available from enquiries@brownsbfs.co.uk.This is ready now.

How will I know my login details for scenario b?

VLeBooks will be in touch to make sure you have everything you need to get started. If you need to contact them you can reach them on 01482 384660 or email enquiries@brownsbfs.co.uk

Will there be any training on the VLeBooks platform?

The team at VLeBooks will support your transition and are happy to call you, run online demos and/or visit you. Please contact VLeBooks on 01482 384 660 or enquiries@brownsbfs.co.uk to arrange.

What do you do if you would like to access Vlebooks via O365?

You will need to provide your O365 domain to Browns. Please contact VLeBooks on 01482 384 660 or enquiries@brownsbfs.co.uk to provide your details.

Will I be able to use any unspent RM Books credit?

Yes – VLeBooks have offered to honour all existing credits. You will be able to browse their eBooks catalogue, create baskets and purchase new eBooks from Browns Books for Students which will sit alongside the books you already have in your library in VleBooks. All credits must be spent by the end of September 2020.

Will I have to pay £500 per year for VLeBooks after the 3 year free transition period?

Currently VLeBooks have many different flexible pricing options ranging from free up to £500 per year. You can see the different packages available at http://brownsbfs.co.uk/vlebooks/vle-packages. Browns Books for Students are continually benchmarking their pricing against competitors to ensure they offer best value to schools, so when the transition period ends in September 2021 it’s possible there may be entirely different packages to choose from.

Until then, you have 3 years where the ‘Full School’ VLeBooks package will be available to you complete free, allowing you to get time to know the service and to have a stable and reliable eBook platform where you can continue to access the eBooks you purchased from RM Books.

Will I be able to access VLeBooks via RM Unify / Glow?

Yes. VLeBooks is now available as a full single-sign-on tile within RM Unify. Just add it from the RM Unify App Library to your LaunchPads. Similarly, we expect VLeBooks to be available within Glow in the coming weeks.

My students

When will my book rentals/purchases be available within my new account?

VLeBooks will contact you after you have created your VLeBooks account to make your current ebooks (with remaining rental periods and/or which have been perpetually licensed) available, subject to publishers’ agreement.

Will all the students be carried over?

If you have RM Unify / Glow or another single sign-on service you will not need to upload your students. If you don’t have RM Unify / Glow then you will need to add your students manually to VLeBooks. Help is available from enquiries@brownsbfs.co.uk

Content

Will my books be carried over?

VLeBooks have agreed to work with publishers to honour your perpetual licences and remaining book rental periods, subject to publishers’ agreement.

Will there be the same amount of content?

Yes, actually there will be more – VLeBooks has around 750,000 titles, about 20 times the content within RM Books. VLeBooks are working through a small list of titles within RM Books that are not yet available on their platform and expect to add those soon.

How do I purchase eBooks in VLeBooks?

Visit www.brownsbfs.co.uk and search for eBooks on the website. You can use the search bar or hover over ‘VLeBooks’ on the purple menu and browse various library and classroom collections.

What types of license are available in VLeBooks?

VLeBooks offers three flexible license types, a Credit License, a Single User License and for some publishers a Limited Issue Single User License. Please contact Browns Books for Students for more information.

Product features

Can students read concurrently and consecutively in VLeBooks?

Yes. Books can be borrowed from a library and read consecutively, i.e. students taking turns to read the title in a usual library reading-for-pleasure manner. And/or, for most publishers, another licence type allows books to be read concurrently via a points mechanism, so class-sets of students or reading groups can all read the same book at the same time.

Can users read offline with VLeBooks?

Yes. Like RM Books, native apps for offline reading are available for personally owned iOS and Android devices. For shared devices, online reading can take place through any modern internet browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Internet Explorer or Safari.

Can I annotate books in VLeBooks?

Yes. Text annotation is available now, with new richer annotation functionality scheduled for next year.

Can I see reports detailing the amount of reading taking place?

How do I allocate books to individuals or groups?

You don’t need to, all eBooks purchased are available to all students. If you’d like to restrict content so only certain year groups can see it then you can. Rather than allocating books, you can create library lists to help pupils easily find the books you need them to see.